Using Stories To Build Relationships

This report discusses tools to develop team trust and relations, including storytelling. A past incident is also mentioned to inspire employees for the future. Proper communication and collaboration are the basic requirements of every organization and leaders need to ensure that team leaders have a good relationship of confidence and trust.

USING STORIES TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
7/18/2019
Student’s Name

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Collaboration and Trust...............................................................................................................................2
Storytelling..................................................................................................................................................3
Story............................................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Every organization consists of employees that need to be satisfied and happy in order to
perform good work. Employees must have coordination in mutual as well as with their team
leaders then only they can more effectively as a team. When employees find loyalty and ethical
decision-making features in the behavior of other team members, they feel connected with their
workplace. Apart from trust, communication is equally important. Well-informed personnel
always prove better employees than others (Managementstudyguide.com, 2019). In such a
manner, it is clear that trust and relations are an important aspect for each team of the
organization. In the presented report, some tools to develop team trust and relations will be
discussed. Apart from this, a brief story describing a past incident will also be mentioned.
Collaboration and Trust
Different methods are there using which trust and collaboration can be developed in an
organization. These methods are known as tools to build trust and relations and to foster
collaboration. The very first way is clear communication. Transparent communication is one of
the lead tools to ensure collaboration (Goman, 2019). In order to use this tool, leaders are
required to give proper time and space to employees so that they may discuss the issues if any.
The lead benefit of this tool is that via way of communication, employees get to know each other
and understand the nature of each other. This further makes them feel familiar with other team
members. Another tool to build trust among team members and in the organization as a whole is
to step away from the practices of blaming and shaming of employees in case of detection of any
fault. This tool assures employees that they can accept their mistakes and organization will help
them to fix those faults. The benefit of this tool is that major issues can be prevented by knowing

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and fixing small mistakes of employees. Motivation is an important aspect that needs to be take
care by leaders. Leaders need to ensure that the employees are motivated enough so that they can
perform well (Edinger, 2014). Rewards are another important tool that team leader often use to
motivate employees. This tool can be used by providing appreciation to employees for their good
performance either in the form of money or in the form of promotion. The lead benefit of this
tool is that employees feel their performance connected with the success of their organization. In
this manner, they feel engaged in their work.
While discussing these tools, storytelling seems to be a very effective tool. Under this
tool, team leaders present some stories before team members with that they feel connected.
Leaders use these stories to set an example before employees (Auvinen, Aaltio, & Blomqvist,
2013). The lead benefit of this tool is that when employees listen to an emotionally charged
piece of communication then they remember the story as well as lessons of the same. In this
manner, it is a more effective way than others as employees personally feel themselves
connected with a situation and know what to do in similar circumstances.
Storytelling
There are many situations where storytelling can be used as an effective tool for building
trust and relationship in the organization. The very first incident is taking a new position. The
position can be anything such as a manager or a new team leader. When a person gets such a new
position then storytelling can be used to know other people or team members. By sharing some
formative experience, a manager or a team member can make others comfortable with him/her.
Another incident when storytelling can be used is the one when a new employee comes in an
organization. For the job satisfaction of an employee, it is necessary that his/her relationship with

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the immediate senior must be good. Such immediate senior can use storytelling to cherish such a
relationship. Apart from these two, another situation is also there. It is the one where employees
feel anxiety because of the launch of big projects. Here again, storytelling plays an important
role. With the help of stories, leaders remind their teams that they can achieve specific goals of
the team. In conjunction with this, leaders may use the subjective tool in daily life whenever they
feel that members are not understanding a particular point or need a real-life example.
Story
To understand the need for trust and communication in the organization, a past incident
of the organization is required to be present here. The incident happened in 2011. An unexpected
result came out of critical negative pressure test but workers of the organization i.e. British
petroleum failed to make inquiries regarding this result to an engineer who visited rig and had
proper experience and knowledge. Rig’s crew misread the pressure test and decided to fix the
issue with temporary abandonment of the company’s Macondo well (Huffpost.com, 2017). This
decision was one of the worst decisions of the team that further caused a terrible gulf oil spill. In
the investigation, it was found that this major accident could be prevented by discussing the issue
with a subjective engineer or any other shore-based engineer. We can relate to this story, as it is
our own organization’s incident. After this story, it is very clear that communication and
collaboration is a much-required factor that needs to be there in each organization. Imagine the
situation where proper communication would have done in the stated story. Life of 11 precious
employees could be safe. However, there was a clear lack of trust and communication. If trust
and communication were there, the staff might have shared their confusion and queries with
engineers.

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It happened, but now we can seek a lesson from an incident that we always should be
ready to make proper communication. Only this incident was not there. I also have many stories
to tell where our employees presented outstanding. All I have to say that in the story told hereby,
stakeholders of the companies had faith in management but because of lack of proper trust and
communication between respective parties, the incident happened.
To prevent such issues and incidents in the future, I want you all to be responsible in
nature. I trust every of my team member and they can be assured that in case of any issue, all the
support will be granted. It is good for everyone to be in good communication as it only leads to
positive results. Further, we all are required to be honest in our behavior and supportive as our
actions affect others too. Employees are not required to feel isolated or odd one out and the
situation is the same with everyone. Nevertheless, we need to realize that we should keep trust in
other team members and should do timely communication. In my opinion, the best strategy to
develop trust and relationship is to know each other. All the employees are required to make
efforts to know each other so they can have faith in each other.
Conclusion
In order to conclude this report, this is to state that proper communication and
collaboration are the basic requirement of every organization and leaders need to ensure that
team leaders have a good relationship of confidence and trust. In the report, many tools to
develop trust and to foster collaboration out of which storytelling concluded as one of the
effective tools. In conjunction with this, the past story has also been discussed with the intention
to inspire them for the future. By way of storytelling, employees feel connected with a situation
and remember a way to behave in some particular situation. Fred Bartlit, the commission’s chief

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counsel concluded the accident as an entirely preventable disaster. This incident led to many
negative impacts on the organization itself and also ended the life of 11 employees. From this
story, it is far clear that communication is required to be there at each step.

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References
Auvinen, T., Aaltio, I., & Blomqvist, K. (2013). Constructing leadership by storytelling–
the meaning of trust and narratives. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 34(6),
496-514.
Edinger, S. (2014). For Leaders, Relationships Trump Expertise. Retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottedinger/2014/02/25/for-leaders-relationships-trump-
expertise/#73e30ddd6414
Goman, C., K. (2019). 8 Ways Leaders Foster Collaboration. Retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2019/04/09/8-ways-leaders-foster-
collaboration/#40613b5955cc
Huffpost.com. (2017). Gulf Oil Spill Could Have Been Prevented By BP Workers Who Weren’t
Consulted: Report. Retrieved from: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oil-spill-could-have-
been_n_824647
Managementstudyguide.com. (2019) Importance of Communication in an Organization.
Retrieved from: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/importance-of-
communication.htm